Having trouble keeping your focus?
Do you get interrupted ALL the time?
Is your frustration about this going through the ROOF?
Whether you’re trying to accomplish small tasks or get into deeper work to think, strategize, create, or innovate, far too often, focus and concentration are getting broken and that means…
…it’s going to take you LONGER to get your work done—and get it done WELL
…thinking, making decisions, and keeping your train of thought is HARDER to do
…you may have to come in early, work late, or work weekends to get anything done
…your effectiveness is compromised and so is the quality of your work
Here’s how to handle some of the most common interruptions and distractions so you can keep your time and focus (and sanity) intact.
VISITORS
You may get a steady stream of visitors in your office when at work and this causes you to want to disappear once in a while.
Are you uncomfortable shutting your door to get some time to do your work? Do you feel guilty for not staying 100% available to your team or your co-workers?
If so, this is not uncommon. But please understand that it’s unrealistic to have an all-day, open-door policy and expect to get your work done and get it done with a high degree of quality and accuracy.
You really DON’T have to be accessible and available 100% of the time. But you already know this to be true, because of the many times you’ve been unavailable due to other commitments on your calendar, like when you’re…
…in a half-day meeting
…at the doctor’s office or in a dentist’s chair
…in a car, on a train, or in an airplane to get to an on-site meeting
…in a 1-hour meeting with a client or a prospect
…in a training class
In these situations, your co-workers will wait for you to become available and nothing falls apart while they’re waiting. And if something DID fall apart, then there’s another conversation to be had about why that happened.
Trying to be 100% available to everyone all the time means you’re placing your “availability” as a higher priority than accomplishing your work. But finishing tasks and projects, and reaching goals are extremely important, too.
👉 Protect time in the morning AND in the afternoon to get your work done, and shut your door. This is essential if you want to get your MOST important tasks accomplished during the day and make progress you can feel great about. How much time? An hour to an hour and a half in the morning and the same in the afternoon. Every day.
PHONE CALLS and NOTIFICATIONS
Do you feel compelled to pick up the phone when it rings even though you’re on a roll getting things done?
If depends on who it is, of course, but many people would choose to answer the phone—or a text or an email—because they’re such magnets. They’re hard to resist.
To counter the magnetic pull, first understand HOW you’ll manage these BEFORE they occur. Make your decisions AHEAD OF TIME.
Otherwise, you’ll be wide open to interruptions and distractions—which you’ll battle the whole time when you’re trying to work—and when you’re done, you’ll wonder if you did your best.
👉 Silence your phones, let callers go to voice mail, and turn OFF notifications—email and any others. Get your work accomplished with quiet, clarity, and focus in order to produce high quality work you can feel good about. When you’re not interrupted in the first place, you won’t be tempted to veer off track.
MULTITASKING
Study after study has proven that multi-tasking is inefficient and ineffective. And yet professionals still do it—and many are still so proud of it! (Is this you, too?)
When you lead a split-screen, split-focus, split-attention day, you’re ultimately compromising the quality of your work, your productivity and progress, and your relationships.
Are you guilty of having a conversation with someone on the phone (or standing in your office) while trying to type an email? Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about. You’re not fully present for the task or the other person.
And it will take you TWICE as long to finish tasks when you multitask. That’s been proven time and time again. When you try to “do it all,” you actually get nothing done. Plus, trying to “do it all” leads to high stress and burnout.
Instead, respect the work you need to do, the deadlines you’ve set, and the relationships you have.
👉 Practice working on ONE task at a time—intentionally and with GREAT focus. Work on a task from start to finish in a space of quiet, uninterrupted time and you’ll not only enjoy the sense of accomplishment from hitting the finish line, but you’ll also get a shot of motivation to keep going.
One of the main reasons that interruptions and distractions are so powerful is connected to FOMO: the fear of missing out. But this particular road block is going to stop your progress every time and lead you to more stress.
You can’t be, do, or have everything, everywhere, all the time, so if you want to improve your productivity and progress—and increase peace of mind—start getting comfortable with the idea protecting time and prioritizing.
Ask yourself: what’s the MOST important thing I need to do right now?
Get clarity, make a decision, and get started. Focus on a small, achievable task. If you’ve planned and prioritized correctly, you’ll get to the NEXT most important task as soon as you finish THIS one.
Management consultant, educator, and author Peter Drucker offers some very wise words to keep in mind:
“If there is any one ‘secret’ of effectiveness, it is concentration. Effective executives do first things first and they do one thing at a time.”
This is something you can do, too. What’s the ONE task you need to accomplish RIGHT now?
Finish it without letting ANYTHING break your focus or steal your time. Instead, make the MOST of your time. You deserve to make progress from the time and the effort you put in.
